Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Hey, if you get a chance, check out the latest February issue of Christianity Today magazine. I provided some interior portrait illustrations of science fiction authors for the cover story article. I did five portraits total. Just got it in the mail today. Happy day!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Alright, my friend Aca, a pastor in Serbia, asked that I draw him a picture of him as Conan the barbarian. I whipped out a black and white pen and ink and he in no shy way asked if I would add color. So here's a 45 minute color job on Aca.

In all seriousness, Aca is seriously one of the raddest dudes I've ever met. A former atheist, and drug user who came to know Christ over a decade and a half ago, and is now bringing the Gospel to the people of Serbia.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Friday, January 09, 2009

During the past couple of months I've been working on a huge book of collected drawings called "The Great and Terrible Dream." I put it down for a while to work on some other things and just recently picked it back up over Christmas break.

Right now, it's clocking in at 104 pages and I'm almost done. Looking to finish it up in the next week or two and print it through Lulu.com.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

The air was perfect, the sun was still out, the grass and trees were green, and I was about to be taught a good life lesson. I was thirteen, a seventh grader at the time.

The whole preceding Winter was leading up to this moment. Brad Brubaker and I had been challenging Ryan Jenkins to a fight all Winter. And this was the night it would happen.

You see, I’d never been in a fight before. I was less than 90 pounds and was looking to prove myself. Earlier in the year I was friends with Ryan. All that changed however when I began hanging out with my parochial school “tough guy” friends. Jason, Jamie, Brad, they’d always tell these glory stories of getting in fights and showing another shmoe who was boss.

Now it was my turn.

So what do you do when you’re a 90 pound seventh grade wuss that wants to prove himself? You find someone similar in size and build...or smaller and try to beat them up. Who cares if you were cordial friends or allies just moths prior!

So anyways, every Saturday night, when I was over at Brad’s house we’d either prank phone call Ryan, or call him and tell him to meet us at such-and-such hill for a royal rumble. We’d go there, but he’d never show. “What a friggin wuss” I thought to myself.

All the groundwork of those preceding months had lead up to this point. One Spring evening, Brad and I found ourselves on Ryan’s front doorstep. Somehow we’d received word that his parents were gone. So if we went to his house he’d have to fight me! Yes, I could see the fight going down in my mind, probably to the sound track of a Metallica song. I’d have beaten someone up, and now I could have a glory story to tout.

So there I was, on Ryan’s front doorstep looking at him right in the eyes. I remember thinking to myself how stoic and resolved he looked. If he was scared, he hid it well. I remember hurling some smack-talk at him trying to get him mad. He remained unvexed and unshaken by my taunts.

“Fight me you butthole!” I finally shouted as I grabbed Ryan by the lapels of his his striped IZod shirt.

The next thing I remember, was getting socked in the eye. Stunned, I didn’t have a chance to gather my thoughts before I was hurled blindly in to the bushes behind me. I remember being disoriented and looking down at the ground and seeing the roots of the shrubs, and the grass at the bottom of the bushes, feeling the uncomfortable jabbing of branches and twigs and shrubbery pricking me as I was being rolled through them. All the while Ryan had proceeded seamlessly into his next stage of self defense­; rapid-fire, machine gun kicks to the groin. (Thankfully his aim was off a bit)

To the best of my knowledge, I never even got a hit in.

All this must have taken place within the time frame of about a minute and a half before I rolled backwards out of the shrubbery and Ryan’s next door neighbor Brian Eady broke up the fight and told to shake hands.

“Gladly” I thought to myself. Still stunned and beside myself in a stupor I stretched out my right hand to shake Ryan's.

“Nice fight man.” I said. Ryan said nothing, rather he stared right through me, unmoved,unflinching.

After the fight, Brad and I returned to his lair, who knows what we did after that. I do remember walking back home a couple hours later in the dark rain and almost running face first in to a tree branch and falling into a small construction pit.

Saturday, January 03, 2009

After reading a post about studio decor over at Eric Orchard's blog, i was encouraged to post a couple shots of friends who inhabit my studio (actually it's not a studio, but a corner of the kitchen my wife graciously allows to inhabit)and put little ideas and inklings into my mind.

Posters, comic books, art books, and my personal favorite...action figures are among those things that inspire me most in the process of making art. So I keep them on hand and they stare at me while I draw and pace back and forth and try to make cool stuff.

Most of these items were purchased at flea markets or off ebay for cheap, or stuff I've kept over the years. Getting them for as cheap as possible is part of the inherent loveliness of them...that and being able to tie a distinct time, place, year and story to each one.

For instance The red guy in front with the yellow brain...my wife got me that for Christmas 2003. the repro Mego Dracula..she got that for me Christmas 2004. The hellboy Lobster Johnson figure...I got that at motor City Con 2008 with my friends Ben and Brent. The X-files aliens and caveman creatures...those take me back to Summer of 1998 and remind me of skating with my friends Tim and Chris. The Swamp Thing Skinman figure...that takes me back to my freshman year of highschool, reminds me my exceedingly strange budding social life. The repro Mego green Goblin figure, my awesome wife got that for me last week for Christmas (greatest wife ever).

The coolness of the action figure + the attached memory seem to work together in tandem in bringing about inspiration. My apologies...I think I just broke my geek-o-meter.

Thursday, January 01, 2009

My drawing spell was broken last night. What better way to break an evil spell than with 80s metal?

I mentioned in my last post about the Stryper contest. Though i had mentally given up, I was struck with inspiration at 10:19 PM Tuesday night and stayed up til 1:00 AM working on it. Couple hours yesterday, couple today, and voila...my submission for Stryper's next album; "Murder by Pride."

BUY MY GRAPHIC NOVELS!

You’ve heard the legend of “jolly ol’ St. Nicholas,” but do you know the truth? St. Nick is real. And he ain’t jolly. An endless cosmic brawl between Nicholas and his vile Holiday counterpart, Krampus, will come to a cataclysmic head this snowy Christmas Eve. But this year, only one will emerge victorious. Can St. Nicholas save Christmas Day? Or will this Eve forever be known as “The Night Before Krampus.”